I love a good challenge. From time to time I get friends and family members asking me “hey can you make me this: (insert picture of cute outfit found on pinterest here)?” Often the question is hypothetical, every now and then its serious. When my cousin Tessa sent me a picture of a cute summer dress from one of those horrible cheap clothing sites where everything made in China and asked if she could pay me to replicate it for her honey moon in Greece… I gladly accepted the challenge. Plus.. it had tassels! Keep reading to see the inspiration for this dress and all the details.
Apologies for the blurry inspiration pic. Like I said.. cheap made in china site (plus its from a screenshot!) I was able to gather a lot of information about the dress based on that little screenshot though! The dress Tess sent me was a grey mock-wrap dress in lightweight jersey with a fun tassel trim detail on the skirt. Super low v in the front neckline, dangerously high crossover of the front wrap. An elastic band gathered the dress at the low waist point. I could also tell the dress was fairly fitted in the hips and under the bust.
I knew the making the pattern wouldn’t be too difficult, especially since Tess and I are fairly close to the same size around. She’s much taller which made me a little nervous about getting the length right (it needed to be short but not TOO short), but that also meant that the finished product would look much better on her than it did me. It always helps when I’m making something for a client if I’m able to try it on myself as I go instead of scheduling fittings. With projects like this sometimes I will try to find a pattern that’s similar and hack it get the end result. This is especially helpful for ensuring the fit is right. But this style was pretty simple and straightforward, and knowing Tess and my size similarity I decided to just draft it from scratch. I made one muslin with some scrap jersey from my stash that ended up having way too much extra room in the waist, creating too much of a “blouson” effect with the elastic. I adjusted this in the pattern then sewed it up in the actual fabric.
The fabric and trim had to be ordered as I didn’t have anything similar in my stash (surprising right!?) Shamefully, I got the grey fabric at Walmart. It’s the closest fabric source I have and I wanted to make sure the color and drape were right so instead of ordering a bunch of swatches online I thought I would pop in and see what their selection had and happened to find this perfect grey jersey. It’s super lightweight and super soft. The tassels we ordered on Etsy (please forgive me as I don’t remember the shop name!) It really worked out how perfectly the tassels matched the fabric. And I can’t even express how soft and comfy this fabric is. Perfect for summer!
Overall I’m super happy with the way this turned out. I’d say I ALMOST nailed it. The almost being that the dress is in fact a touch short on Tess. It worked out ok in the end because she planned on wearing it on beach days over her suit anyway… but I’m still a bit annoyed with myself for that one. Tess seamed pretty happy with it thought and thats all that matters to me! Below you can see a pic of her rocking it on her honeymoon in Greece with her new hubby. (I told you it looks WAY better on her!
SKIP TO THE END?
Pattern: Self Drafted
Fabric: Grey jersey from Walmart, tassel trim from Etsy
Notions: 1/4″ elastic
Difficulty: easy
Finishes: Sewn & finished on serger
Time: < 2 hrs
Sew it again? I don’t think I could rock a dress like this, but if Tess wanted another one, I would surely make it for her!
Happy Sewing!
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